Numerous current radar systems, including automotive radar systems, require wide angle coverage having narrow beams and a high update rate, all in a small package size. Current automotive radar systems for applications including collision warning, pre-crash sensing and adaptive cruise control incorporate a fixed beam, switched beam or mechanically scanned antenna that limit performance by falling short of these previously mentioned requirements. In the case of mechanically scanned antennas, the update rate is too slow for current demands, system size and cost are high, and reliability is low.
Electronically scanned antennas are also employed with radar systems. Allowing an antenna to electronically scan has benefits over a mechanically scanned antenna, including fast scanning, the ability to host multiple antenna beams on the same array, eliminating mechanical complexity and reliability issues, a wide field of view, a narrow beam and a high update rate. However, conventional electronically scanned antennas using discrete phase shifters are expensive and introduce excessive RF loss at typical automotive radar frequencies (i.e., 24 GHz and 76 GHz).
Digital beamforming is an alternative method of electronic scanning whereby individual antenna elements or subarrays are downconverted and sampled, and beam scanning is performed by a digital signal processor. However, current digital beamforming architectures often exhibit high cost and inadequate performance, including inadequate field of view (FOV), poor sensitivity, numerous grating lobes, high sidelobes and beam pattern distortion due to target motion.
Further, depending on the system configuration, digital beamforming frequently requires numerous receiver channels. For example, with a narrow beam, a large array is utilized and numerous elements are employed. A dedicated receiver is conventionally utilized for each antenna element, adding cost to the system. Multiplexing to a minimal number of receivers is impractical since an unacceptable multiplexing loss can occur. For arrays of more than a few elements, the multiplicity of required receivers is exceedingly expensive for typical automotive radar.